Everyone / cycling: The Ertl/Renz-Velomotion 1 team around the two Belgians Michiel Minneart and Jurgen Moreels is slowly working its way towards the yellow jerseys with its second day's victory in the men's classification at the TOUR Transalp. The duo is still 4:30 behind the leaders from the Strassacker / Garmin team. Meanwhile, Lennard from the Ertl/Renz-Velomotion 2 team is struggling with the first consequences of a strenuous stage race.
The mission of overall victory in the men's ranking lives on for the Ertl/Renz-Velomotion 1 team! After a rather mixed start and a big gap after the first stage, the two Belgians are working their way up the rankings day by day. Today on the fourth stage from Sillian to Fiera di Primiero, Michiel and Jurgen rewarded themselves with a strong performance and great tactics by winning the men's classification.
For long parts of the race, a closed breakaway group of 30 drove with the leaders of the overall standings at the front. Together with Ail Trentino they attacked on the last 40km - with success. The quartet drove towards the goal as one, but when another attack by Michiel and Jurgen fizzled out, they had to let the two comrades-in-arms go after their counterattack. However, since Ail Trentino is in the Masters category, Ertl/Renz-Velomotion 1 still has the stage win in the men's classification at the end of the day. This puts them in second place in the men's category, less than 5 minutes behind the two leaders. Everything is still in there!
At Ertl/Renz-Velomotion 2 with Lennard Heidenreich and ex-pro Holger Sievers things didn't go quite so smoothly. After strong performances so far, Lennard felt the effects of a tough stage race for the first time today, as he honestly admits: “Today I struggled a lot. The first stage races are slowly making themselves felt. The alarm clock rings and you know it's going to be tough today. It could actually have been my day. The 134 km were never particularly steep uphills. Of course we also collected about 2700 meters of altitude but compared to the other days it was almost a sprinter stage if there is such a thing at a Tranalp. I managed to be in the lead as far as Cortina d'Ampezzo, but I already knew that it would be difficult for me today. It felt like I had stones in my stomach and my legs didn't really want to either. So I finished the stage at training pace and only really made chips downhill.”
Three days left - three days opportunity for Michiel and Jurgen to conquer the general classification and three days that Lennard and Holger still have to survive.
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